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June 8, 2012
Q. A Brooklyn, Ohio, reader asks, “If you were to take a digital clock and flip it over, in a 12-hour period how many words would it spell out?”
A. The digits of seven-segment numeric displays, when turned upside-down, may be read as letters, giving rise to “calculator spelling.” Most famous is the number 0.7734, which read upside-down is “hELLO.” Another popular example (which has appeared on various TV shows) is the mildly risque 5318008, whose translation is left to the reader. If the display includes “tails” on digits 6 and 9, then the flipped-digit-letter correspondences are 0=O, 1=I, 2=Z, 3=E, 4=h, 5=S, 6=g, 7=L, 8=B and 9=G. If tails are not included, then 6=q and 9=b.
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